KAL 777-300 Tail Scrape at NRT

Certainly saved them a few mill. Would this have saved that Emirates A340 in Oz or was that too much of a scrape?

Wasn’t this sort of thing accounted for in the design process ?

Hi all
The 777-300 has both a tail strike detector and a tail strike protector.
The tail strike detection system is standard on both the -200 and -300. It consists of a small “Fin” mounted at the lowest point of the fuselage during rotation. This detector is made of abraidable metal and has two loops of wire running through it. If the aircraft over rotates the detector strikes the runway wears away, breaks the two wire loops and this generates the EICAS message “Tail strike”. It also sends an ACARS message back to head office. There is no truth in the rumour that it generates a resignation letter in the flight deck!
The -300 is of course longer and the risk of tail strikes is higher. Boeing fitted it with a retractable tail skid. On the end of the skid is a cast alloy “shoe” that is the first thing that wears away during a “slight” contact with the runway. If the contact is heavier the skid assembly contains a crushable cartridge. This absorbs the force of a serious tail strike. If the crew are having a really bad day the tail skid will be fully compressed and the tail strike detector will be triggered and the resignation letter will be generated!
The crushable cartridge is a Boeing thing. The 737-400, 757-300 and the 767-3/400 use the same idea.

Rgds Cking

Are my eyes deceiving me or does he land it and then pull the nose right up? It looks as though it’s on the ground and he just pulls right back scraping the tail, and it seems to stay there for a long time. ……..

It does look very odd. The nose is in the air for quite a long time.
It almost looks like the minimum take off speed test during certification.

Cking looks to be right, there appears to be no visible damage to the aircraft skin.

Looks like the tail skid did it’s job.

Rgds Cking

Are my eyes deceiving me or does he land it and then pull the nose right up? It looks as though it’s on the ground and he just pulls right back scraping the tail, and it seems to stay there for a long time. I know keeping the nose up is one of the most efficient way to slow the aircraft down but surely you’d drop the nose if the tail were scraping like that? The vibrations through the aircraft from that would be massive, I don’t see how they couldn’t be aware of it on the flight deck although admittedly, I’m no 777 pilot. It looks very odd, anyway. :confused:

Paul

Wasn’t this sort of thing accounted for in the design process ?

Must be this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8148527.stm

This one wasn’t my fault, my fat backside hasn’t been in the rear end of a 777 at Narita for 4 months! 😀

Paul